If there is no root and the hair is that old then it is unlikely that vible DNA will be able to be extracted from it.There will still be mtDNA present but this obviously will only infer materal lineage and not paternity.

There is a way round this I think though if you explained your situation to a paternity testing company.

They should be able to say that the hair you have is the mothers hair from typing the mtDNA and comparing it to that of the child.Although you mention "cutting"? you would be better off plucking at least 5 hairs which contain roots from your own head for analysis and then also getting the same amount of plucked hair (with roots) from the child......this way a paternity test can be carried out using DNA to see if the child is yours or not.

Hair follicle that is in the bottom of the hair, contains living cells (thus, these cells have DNA). To use DNA testing (paternity testing, criminal investigations, etc.), hair is uprooted. The hair that falls in the form of fracture is not useful for this analysis (it does not contain DNA).

OK just to get my head around this. There is no point in testing an old, cut lock of my missing sister's hair for identity purposes as it just proves who our mother is which can be done if she returns, at which point we might as well do a comparison nDNA of both of us to determine we share both parents. Correct?

If the lock was not washed/frequently brushed/otherwise cleaned, I think it is possible that some skin cells may have adhered to the hair and might remain - it seems like this hasn't been mentioned in the thread before. I also think that it probably would have to not have been handled very much, since anyone who touches it would leave skin cells behind as well. You would probably need the cells of anyone who has handled the lock in order to try and subtract their signal out of the experiment, so it seems unlikely to me that this could be done successfully.

If you had any object that she had touched (preferably frequently) but nobody else ever did (or at most only once or twice), then you might be able to get some signal - it would still be quite difficult though.

To do so you need the folliclular cells of the hair (meaning that the hair needs to be plucked with its 'roots') since these are the only living cells of the hair. The actual hair shaft contains no living cells or DNA and cannot be used for DNA identification.

If you need to find out more about DNA testing you can visit our website and contact our DNA specialists atAtlas DNA .